HDI is comprised of over thirty projects in research, training and direct services to individuals with disabilities. These projects are grouped into several categories based on the ages of the population we serve.
Early Childhood | School Age | Adults | Lifespan | Core
Center for Collaborative Planning
Qualified professionals with specialized expertise work with state and local agencies across the nation to meet the challenge of developing interagency collaborative service delivery systems. CCP also helps with school readiness, curriculum design, social skills training, program evaluation and more.
Child Care Resource and Referral Services of Kentucky
This program, funded through the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Child Care, is designed to coordinate and support the local Child Care Resource and Referral Network across the state of Kentucky. Each CCR&R is designed to ensure that adequate quality child care programs are available in each Area Development District to meet the needs of families, to provide referral information to families seeking child care, to increase family knowledge of the characteristics of high quality early care and education services, and to increase provider access to training and/or professional development opportunities.
Context of Service Decision Making In Kentucky
The project focuses on investigating the ways in which the level and intensity of early intervention services provided to families and children are determined. Service decision making processes are a critical component of the early intervention system at both the state and local level. While these decisions immediately affect the child and family, there are ultimately staffing, budgetary, policy and monitoring implications.
Kentucky Early Childhood Data System
KEDS, funded through the Kentucky Department of Education, is responsible for supporting the state's reporting requirements for the child outcomes for early childhood under IDEA. This includes the development and implementation of a universal data platform system that will collect and correlate assessment results for approved Curriculum Based Assessments (CBA) to Kentucky’s standards and benchmarks and to national OSEP child outcomes.
Kentucky Early Childhood Outcomes Initiative
The Kentucky Early Childhood Outcomes Initiative is working with pilot sites in Kentucky to design and implement a continuous assessment system that provides data on the extent to which young children with disabilities are meeting the Kentucky Early Childhood Standards and the national child outcomes proposed for children with disabilities birth to age 5.
Kentucky Early Childhood Transition Project
Kentucky Early Childhood Transition Project is available for training and technical assistance for communities across the Commonwealth of KY related to early childhood transition needs. Project staff may assist interagency efforts in systems development and specific training request in refining programming efforts to serve children (B-5) and families.
Kentucky Infant/Toddler Institute
The annual Infant/Toddler Institute is a state wide institute that is jointly sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Education, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Cabinet for Health Services, the Kentucky Head Start Collaboration Office and IHDI.
National Early Childhood Transition Center
The National Early Childhood Transition Center (NECTC) is a five-year research project funded through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs and is designed to investigate and validate practices and strategies that enhance the early childhood transition process and support positive school outcomes for children with disabilities. This objective will be met through four inter-related research activities.
Natural Environments Task Force and Self-Assessment Project
The natural environments project will work to identify a set of indicators for providing early intervention services in natural environments. A self-assessment document will be developed to help early intervention programs move towards the provision of services in natural environments over the next five years.
Parent Leadership Initiative
The Early Childhood Parent Leadership Initiative, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a joint venture between the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and the University of Kentucky Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute. The project is designed to facilitate the involvement of parents with their children in early care and education settings and to build an infrastructure of early childhood professionals who can work collaboratively with parents to enhance the quality of early childhood settings and support positive child outcomes. The newest phase of the project (funded through Knight Foundation) is designed to pilot the Parent Leadership Training in Fayette County over the course of three years.
Professional Development Framework Research Collaborative
This research project is funded through the Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Bureau to investigate the degree to which a statewide unified professional development framework impacts the educational level of early care and education providers and subsequent classroom quality.
Project STEPS
Project STEPS strives to provide training and consultations that enhance services provided by local agencies for young children and their families, including: team building, effective meeting strategies, assessing and facilitating social and behavioral skills for transition, leadership and conflict resolution skills.
Quality Enhancement Initiative
The Quality Enhancement Initiative, funded through the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Child Care, seeks to improve the quality of early care and education services throughout Kentucky by providing assistance to child care providers in accessing the KIDS NOW scholarship programs and by providing information, technical assistance and access to supports needed to participate in the STARS for KIDS NOW Quality Rating System.
State Preschool Accountability Research Collaborative
SPARC is designed to investigate appropriate practices for the inclusion of preschool children with and without disabilities in Standards Based Accountability Systems. Practices will be identified from current research, perceptions from the early childhood community, and current practice in states.
Training Into Practice Project
Training Into Practice Project
The education and training of early childhood caregivers/educators is strongly correlated with favorable outcomes for young children in early care and education programs. To ensure effective transfer of what is learned in training into the workplace, the Training into Practice Project (TIPP) seeks to support the development of training transfer partnerships by providing support to four key players in the training process: the trainer, the trainee, the trainee's workplace, and the training organizations that organize and sponsor early childhood training throughout Kentucky.
Project Objectives:
To provide early childhood trainers with a core of knowledge about effective training needed to secure and maintain their Kentucky Early Childhood Trainer's Credential.
To make the Child Care Provider Orientation Training more accessible and support application of effective training information.
To assist supervisors and directors in the process of facilitating and supporting their staff members professional development and transfer of learning from training to the work environment.
To support the implementation of the Kentucky Early Childhood Trainer's Credential and renewal process.
Alliance for Systems Change/Mid-South Regional Resource Center
ASC consists of the Mid-South Regional Resource Center (MSRRC) and other projects funded to assist states in improving education and related programs serving children and youth with disabilities and their families. States served by the MSRRC include: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
ILSSA-KAP Kentucky Alternate Assessment Project
The Alternate Portfolio Assessment is designed to include students with significant challenges in the statewide school accountability system as required by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 and IDEA 97. The KY Alternate Portfolio Assessment measures student progress towards achievement. It also measures the degree to which schools and programs implement the researched-based, effective practice instructional strategies deemed important for students with disabilities. The KAP web site provides current training information, resources, ideas, etc.
ILSSA-SPLASH
SPLASH training started in 1983, and since 1988, it has been offered through HDI. This inservice training program began introducing special education teachers to effective, best practices for including students with significant cognitive disabilities in school and community settings. During this twenty-three year odyssey, the field has seen major changes in the way we think about what these students should know and be able to do. From accessing the general curriculum to community-based instruction, today’s SPLASH emphasizes the importance of academic skills, learning as close as possible to non-disabled peers to maximize social and communication opportunities, as well as age-appropriate functional skills embedded into regular routines that allow students to access a variety of communities. In addition, we recognize the constraints of accountability on teacher time and travel. To accommodate these constraints, SPLASH is now available through web-based, accessible learning opportunity.
Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment (ILSSA)
ILSSA was formed in August, 1998 in response to the need of states and local school systems to respond to the assessment and other requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. To date we have been involved in facilitating inclusive assessment practices in over twenty states. ILSSA has particularly strong expertise on instructional and assessment issues for students with significant cognitive disabilities in all types of assessment formats. ILSSA is also involved in designing assessment systems for the 2% of students with disabilities who do not take the alternate assessment.
National Alternate Assessment Center
The National Alternate Assessment Center (NAAC) is a five year project funded under the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The primary objectives of NAAC are to: (1) bring together and build on the current research base on high quality, technically sound alternate assessments; (2) provide technical assistance to states as they endeavor to design or redesign their alternate assessments; and (3) demonstrate through our partnerships with states high quality design and administration of alternate assessments.
Universal Design for Assessment
The Universal Design for Assessment grant is designed to investigate the use of an online testing system in Kentucky for the state-wide accountability test. The online system is designed to provide accommodations to students as they take the test. Research will be conducted to better understand the efficacy of the online system and where improvements can be made to enhance outcomes for students with disabilities.
Belonging in the Community
Belonging collaborates with the Kentucky Division of Mental Retardation on activities that promote success for Kentuckians with disabilities. The Core Indicators Project seeks to develop and improve upon performance indicators of services for individuals with developmental disabilities. In addition, Belonging provides administrative oversight for the Statewide Supported Living Coordinator.
Community-Based Work Transition Program
The Community Based Work Transition Program is designed to provide a positive beginning in the world of work for students in special education during their last two years of high school. It is a cooperative effort between participating local school districts, the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Kentucky Department for the Blind, and the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky.
Hope for Tomorrow
In collaboration with UK's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, IHDI has received a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation to assist older families of adults with developmental disabilities to assist them in actively planning for their adult child's future. With the assistance of parent mentors who themselves have successfully initiated plans for their son or daughter, Hope for Tomorrow will provide information to families on accessing services, estate planning issues, and planning for the future.
Kentucky Business Leadership Network
The purpose of the Kentucky Business Leadership Network, which is affiliated with the U. S. Business Leadership Network, is to promote enduring partnerships between business and industry and agencies that provide vocational support services for Kentuckians with disabilities. Kentucky's Bank One is the lead employer for this initiative, which is sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, Division of Mental Retardation, and IHDI.
Kentucky Supported Employment Training Project
Kentucky citizens with disabilities benefit from supported employment services. This program promotes the implementation and expansion of supported employment services through statewide training, technical assistance and collaborative efforts.
Kentucky Transition Signal
The Kentucky Transition Signal is an interagency collaborative effort between 21 different state agencies. Fiscal support for the Collaborative comes from the Kentucky Department of Education, Division of Exceptional Children. The mission of the Kentucky Transition Signal is to assist students with disabilities and their families in making a successful transition from school to adult life.
Paraeducators of Kentucky
Paraprofessionals assist teachers across the Commonwealth with classroom activities. This project is designing, developing and implementing a statewide paraprofessional training network. Core competencies are taught via targeted training and are delivered through a variety of live and interactive formats. In collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education, local school districts and Institutes of Higher Education throughout the state, the program will devise a career ladder and an Associate Degree program for paraprofessionals.
Brighter Tomorrows: Supporting Families with Accurate Information About Down Syndrome
Brighter Tomorrows is designed to enhance the communication and knowledge skills of physicians, especially pediatricians, obstetricians/gynecologists, and family practitioners, in providing accurate information to families of newly diagnosed children with Down syndrome and in supporting those families in the critical moments and days after that initial diagnosis. The program includes two interactive case studies, in which the physician will have to make decisions about how to inform a “virtual family” about their child’s diagnosis and answer their questions. One of these cases involves a child newly born with Down syndrome, for whom Down syndrome was not suspected before birth; the second case involves a diagnosis made in utero.
The program also includes ‘real-life’ stories (Receiving and Giving the News) of how families were informed, as well as physician stories of how they were able to give the news to families in positive and supportive ways. A third feature of the program is the Life Glimpses of individual children and young adults, developed by the families to illustrate the life contributions of their children and how their children have made a difference in their families and their communities. The final feature of the program is the Resources Section, designed to give physicians and families up-to-date information about Down syndrome, and to connect families to needed resources. Brighter Tomorrows was developed by a Core Medical Team and an Expert Parent Team, who worked in tandem to design each of the above components.
Developmental Disabilities Certificate Program
The purpose of this Graduate Certificate is to prepare professionals from a broad range of disciplines to play a leadership role in providing services and supports for people with developmental disabilities and their families.
Preservice Health Training Project
The Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute (IHDI) is developing, in collaboration with families, consumers, and medical, nursing, and allied health faculty, a training curriculum on the needs of persons with developmental disabilities and their families that can be infused into existing medicine, nursing, dental, and allied health course work in Kentucky universities and colleges.
University Center for Excellence (Core Grant)
The University Center for Excellence Core Grant, funded through the U.S. Administration on Developmental Disabilities, supports IHDI's Core Functions of Interdisciplinary Training, Community Education and Technical Assistance, Information Dissemination, Research and Evaluation. Included in the Core Grant are IHDI's Graduate Certificate in Developmental Disabilities, the IHDI Seminar Series, IHDI's information dissemination and overall evaluation activities.
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